Qatar Royal Family Plan £1.5bn Takeover of Manchester United

The “Qatar Royal Family reportedly plan on a £1.5bn takeover of Manchester United,” screams a British tabloid.

The problem is that the newspaper reporting the news, The Mirror, is renowned for printing gossip without a sliver of truth to it. And in this particular case, the article in question is devoid of any sources or any semblance of fact. It just sounds like a sensational headline and nothing more. It’s one of those rare stories where you can learn everything there is to know by the headline itself. The remainder of the article is fluff as demonstrated by a quick dissection of the article as follows:

What do those 115 words say? Nothing really other than what the headline already says.

So could the Qatar Royal Family actually be planning a takeover of United? Quite possibly yes, but the lack of any quotes or additional information from The Mirror makes the story appear very unlikely.

About The Author

Publisher of World Soccer Talk, Christopher Harris founded the site in 2005. He has been interviewed by The New York Times, The Guardian and several other publications. Plus he has made appearances on NPR, BBC World, CBC, BBC Five Live, talkSPORT and beIN SPORT.
Harris, who was born and raised in Wales, has lived in Florida since 1984, and supported Swansea City since 1979. Last but not least, he got engaged during half-time of a MLS game.

26 Comments

JoelDecember 18, 2010

How funny, considering you lifted their gossipy, fluff headline as the title of your article in order to garner hits for your site.

If you care to read, you’ll notice that I said I love this site when it doesn’t consume itself with endless propaganda and speculation about bribes and any number of background shenanigans it has no proof of. But if you don’t care to read, fine by me. I’ll continue to point out (what you call “bitch”) weak reporting on a site that is otherwise pretty strong.

Bah, I do feel like the other posters that the headline of this article is misleading and trying to garner more hits. I would never have opened it if I had known that this is just a rehash of what some British tabloid said! (And British tabloid in printing crap story is hardly news)

I agree, I’d have never bothered to click on this from my twitter feed if I knew it was only this. Your point is good gaffer but because you’ve got an incorrect sensationalist title your point is also lost.

Put a title up along the lines of “Mirror in baseless story allegation” then I’ll know what it is before I read it…. your title was basically theirs and made me think the article was Qatar were buying United.
The article is good but the title misrepresents it.

Qatar would never buy united nor would any other Arabs, it would be see as a direct rivalry between them and Manchester city. The Arabs are very much into respecting the richest sheiks, not competing against each other as this would be seen as an insult/challenge.

It’s interesting: if you parse the headline of this story in a Clinton-esque manner, it could be literally true. The Qatari family may indeed be planning to buy Manchester United. The problem with the story lies in the fact that it’s highly unlikely that the Qatari royal family has told the Glazers about their plans, or that the Glazers might act on any such plans…. Much like many other stories in the British tabs, there’s probably not more than a shred of truth in this one.